January 11, 2009

The Plain Janes by Castellucci and Rugg

In the beginning MainJane, living in Metro City, is hurt in a bomb attack. She find an unconscious man beside her on the sidewalk after the attack, along with his sketch book embossed with "Art Saves" on the cover. The bomb, the man, and his sketch book lead her to change her perspective on life and the world around her.

Her parents move her to a small suburban town out of fear of the attacks. There she makes friends - a group of Janes - by getting them involved in "art attacks" around the town, random anonymous art, meant to beautify and make people think. While most of the teenagers eventually get into the concept, the adults (led by the police), fear it. They try to control where people can go and when out of fear of these "attacks." Meanwhile, Jane writes to the unconscious John Doe back at the hospital in Metro City, so we see her thoughts as if she were writing in a diary.

I liked the book, but the ending wasn't very satisfying. I know that there is at least one follow-up to this (which I'll read if my library acquires it), but I would've liked to see a more solid conclusion to this. It's interesting that both this and the other book I read, Persepolis, have a message about strong females standing up against fear mongering.

1 comment:

Hey - thanks for the review - I just got this from the library and read it quickly. I liked it, too - and agreed that it ended abruptly. Our library doesn't have the sequel, so I'll have to find it elsewhere.

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